Determinist Destiny and Reincarnation in My Little Pony

Alright, let's get one thing straight here so we can get the juvenile jokes out of the way. I fucking love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. There, I said it. I love it's characters, I love it's tone, I love it's style, I love it's music, and I love Fluttershy. Seriously, if anyone here doesn't love Fluttershy, I think you're guilty of some sort of war-crime.

If your eyes didn't begin to water it's because you sold all your tears to Satan!

But beyond all that I love the unique mythology of the world! There's magic, and talking dogs, and tribbles parasprites, and an inescapable fate tied to your very soul. Ok, so the last one may be a little bit more scary, scarier even than you would at first believe of a show that features a main character named Pinkie Pie. You may cry bollocks to us (afraid of using real swear words, less you make Fluttershy disappointed in your language), but the truth, as always on Eclectic Haberdashary, is inescapable.

Anyway, in this world each pony has a destiny budding within them in the form of a Cutey Mark (don't give me that look, you knew what you were in for the moment you read the title), a simple design that correlates to the destined talent of a given pony. For example, Rainbow Dash has a cloud with a lightning bolt coming out of it because she manages the weather and likes to be stylish about it. There are a number of complications that arise from this however. First, while the marks certainly have a destiny to them, one must discover their cutey mark for themselves. This point itself raises our first question: Does the mark make the pony, or does the pony make the mark? I mean, if you discover something you love to do, does your Cutey Mark appear and reflect that thing you love, or does destiny wait until something else is in store for you? Are there ponies who take up middle management careers to feed their illegitimate children and descend into alcoholism without ever gaining a Cutey Mark? Or would their mark be something like a bottle of Wild Irish Rose typing up a tax return?

Behold the kiss of despair 

The show itself deals with many of these issues, but in ways that are honestly quite frightening. In one episode, a young filly named Applebloom, upset that she has yet to receive a Cutey Mark of her own, drinks a magic potion that makes many different kinds of Cutey Marks appear on her body. As each mark appears, she becomes masterfully proficient in the skill associated with that mark. One minute she's an expert hulla-hoop artist, the next, she's taming lions. But the marks start to take over, as she is compelled by supernatural forces to meet the whims of these horse-tattoos. She can't stop speaking french, or sweeping chimneys, spinning plates, or other such things you imagine in a horrible Disney Movie about Europe. 

So what does this mean about Cutey Marks? Do they impose some powerful will upon the pony to fulfil their duty, like some malicious horse parasite? Does any pony have any control over their cutey marks? Has this urge to fulfil the destiny of these tattoos become entangled with the inner urges of a pony with their true destiny to the point where thier own desires and the desires of the mark are no longer separate?  

This all comes to a head in the final episode of the third season, where the plot concerns the five ponies, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all having switched Cutey Marks. Rarity is now in control of the weather, Rainbow Dash is taking care of animals, Fluttershy is now hosting parties, etc. Each of them has lost the memory of their previous destiny while they fail spectacularly in their new roles. And yet, while none of them like their new destinies and they all realize that they are failing at what they have been guided to do, they feel absolutely stuck in these rolls. Pinkie Pie falls into depression and Fluttershy nearly leaves town! But they're still all the same ponies with all the same skills and attitudes, the only thing that changed was the destiny provided by the mark.

So that means that in this universe, there exists an external force that ties itself to the souls of ponies and guides them towards some sort of goal in the name of destiny. Can Free Will exist in a universe like this? Where the biggest part of your life is tied to forces beyond our understanding? Where your goals and ideals can be cut and pasted from different ponies through magic? Jesus, this sounds like the nightmare of Immanuel Kant. Who'd have thought that a cartoon about singing cartoon horses could be so dark?

Aside from John de Lancie of course.